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John Singleton walks away from Rugby League

Red&BlackBear

First Grade
Messages
5,586
Bears are potentially going to take up the lease of the stadium. It's not a bad result and for numbnuts like el diablo and Brutus who want us gone completely, if anything it just means we can have holding rights to bluetongue outright (as opposed to playing rights). One of the only teams to own their stadium is a great result.
 
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Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
70,347
Can the bears afford it, I guess if X number of nrl games are played there a year it may turn a profit but if having to rely on the mariners rent, income wouldn't be great. Do you know who owns the stadium?
 

Patorick

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
8,997
Hasn't he "walked away from Rugby League" before ?
Four years ago...

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...s-lost-to-league/story-e6frext9-1111117097404

John Singleton's millions lost to league

By Paul Kent
The Daily Telegraph
August 04, 2008 12:00AM


GIVEN the apparent lack of French millionaires prepared to invest their hard earned in the NRL, it was time for a chat with the man that had the millions, if not the French.

My man Singo.

Three years ago John Singleton put $50 million on the table, picked a coach and found a football ground at a place where they were desperate to have rugby league.

Oh, the things he could have done. He even had Matt Orford ready to captain the team, the local boy done good.

But they knocked him back.

"They chose the Gold Coast, who had no ground and no money," Singo said, as the tinkle of a pool fountain sounded in the background.

"But you can't knock them, they've made it a success."

Singo is in Singapore working on a deal that will stuff another mattress full of hundred dollar bills.

He gets back today and will have a short holiday to recover before he is ready to get back to work on Saturday, when he goes to the races.

This is the life you imagine every millionaire lives.

Fanning themselves with a fistful of fifties, splashing money on thoroughbreds and bookmakers like it was raining confetti.

You want to buy a back-rower that can run a hundred in even time? he'd ask. Take it out of petty cash.

Alas, French millionaires come along only every so often, and it seems ours is currently in Singapore and no longer prepared to be jollied along.

How you can let money like this go is anyone's guess.

"I don't have any interest any longer," Singo said, as the distinct snap of a lotion bottle cracked in the background.

It must have been time for his footrub.

"After a while you become a fanatic. If long after the whistle blows you're still . . ." he paused, "someone else has to emerge."


And there has been some jockeying for that. Since Sonny Bill Williams revealed his finely tuned capitalist ear nine days ago the one beautiful point to emerge has been the number of people with a solution to fix it all.

If there was a thousand people asked, there was a thousand different solutions.

Warren Ryan, Ben Ikin, John Quayle, Andrew Johns, Brian Smith, Arthur Beetson, Matthew Johns, Peter Sterling, Grant Mayer, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley, Phil Gould, Cameron Smith, David Gallop, Peter FitzSimons, Wayne Beavis . . .

It's only when you consider the weight of those asked, and the vastly different solutions offered, that you begin to understand the weight of the NRL's problem.

It's not so much how do you fix it, but what do you fix?

As for my man Singo, he likes NRL chief executive David Gallop, says so a dozen times, but he reckons someone like Katie Page, already a standing NRL board member, would be the ideal leader for the game.

"She'd fix it in a week," he said, as the faint whisper of champagne bubbles popped in the background.

Singo must have had guests. He is strictly a beer man.

Yet what all these different opinions reveal are, that if rugby league has a strength, it is the depth of people that care.

You put all those people in a room for more than an hour and soon enough there will be blood on the walls, and several bodies at that, but they all share a love for rugby league that goes deeper than any hatred they harbour.

If only just.

Maybe that is the solution.

Several weeks back Stuart came out calling for a summit, while it is known here that, around that, a handful of coaches past and present have been talking about getting together and finding solutions for the game.

Their motivation is their undying love for rugby league. The NRL has mostly avoided the issue, keen to distance itself from any sign of panic while pointing to the end-of-season forums held annually, but something needs to be done outside what is being done.

The coaches forum at the end of the season is a waste of time, for one.

It takes just one coach to propose a decision that is to the advantage of his own team and suddenly the rest of them get defensive, and next thing they're hissing and spitting at each other.

And one coach always tries to push one through.

It might be time, among all this uncertainty and upheaval, to bring in an independent organisation to address the problems once and for all.

Give the game a clear plan ahead. Let them scour everything, and when the paper is handed in the judge's decision is final.

Short of a few French millionaires, it might be the best introduction the game can make.

As for my man Singo, he won't be back.

"I made that clear last time, here's a $50 million bank guarantee but I want it while I'm still young enough to enjoy it," he said, as the whoosh of silk sheets whispered in the background.

It must have been time for his afternoon nap.

Unfortunately, there's one rich millionaire that has slipped off the line.

The game can't afford any more. "You feel really insulted when you have got the ground and money and they still tell you to get f . . . . . ," he said.

Pardon his French, it was a stressful day.
:sarcasm:
 

Brutus

Referee
Messages
26,355
Bears are potentially going to take up the lease of the stadium. It's not a bad result and for numbnuts like el diablo and Brutus who want us gone completely, if anything it just means we can have holding rights to bluetongue outright (as opposed to playing rights). One of the only teams to own their stadium is a great result.

I don't want the Bears gone completely and nor does Fred Ah Kuoi.
 
Messages
2,579
dont know the numbers but havent there been more than a dozen game up there this season ?
so he would be making money that way wouldnt he
 

woodyk2

First Grade
Messages
7,032
He is actually the product of a working class family who was clever enough to get into a very good state high school, earned a million before he was thirty, in advertising (and those were the days when a million was a lot of money), and has beenvery successful for many years.


He is neither a piss head, nor a bully. His name will be in lights for a few years yet, whatever happens.


I think there is a bit of envy in the wind.
Not a bully? Pfffft...ask the racers and fans of Castlereagh International Dragway.:x Merkin of the highest order.
 

ozenzud

Juniors
Messages
699
I think Singo is a good RL man. But his logic that not having a local NRL team means generations of league people would be 'lost' because there is no local team is a bit misguided.

Yes, a local team would be sensaish. But there are hundreds of RL towns in NSW and QLD without an NRL team and but have a good local comp, and the game thrives.

I think the ARL are insane for not pushing expansion. To Perth, QLD and NZ.
 

Brutus

Referee
Messages
26,355
I think Singo is a good RL man. But his logic that not having a local NRL team means generations of league people would be 'lost' because there is no local team is a bit misguided.

Yes, a local team would be sensaish. But there are hundreds of RL towns in NSW and QLD without an NRL team and but have a good local comp, and the game thrives.

I think the ARL are insane for not pushing expansion. To Perth, QLD and NZ.

Spot on.
 

Hanscholo

Bench
Messages
4,818
I think the only real discussion point here is whether the NRL leaves the central coast for the knights or sections it off waiting for future expansion. Personally I think they could be the Northern (Newcastle, Hunter and CC) Knights. There are a lot of synergies there already. The Knights would be happy to expand their market officially onto the central coast.

I would imagine that playing 1/3 of their home games on the CC, would be a good idea. I don't think Newcastle is above sharing their name for the greater good nor do i think a lot of folks on the CC would be that against having another club 'planted' into their area, but that remains to be seen.
 

Joker's Wild

Coach
Messages
17,894
Newcastle CC Knights would do it mate. As a non-Novocastrian Knights supporter Id be all for it

However, I doubt our fellow Hunter based supporters would be so accepting.
 

Jason Maher

Immortal
Messages
35,991
Failing to back Norths' original move to the Central Coast and booting the Reds so John Ribot could have his plaything in Melbourne are the two biggest c**k ups of the NRL era.
 

Ronnie Dobbs

Coach
Messages
17,485
He is actually the product of a working class family who was clever enough to get into a very good state high school, earned a million before he was thirty, in advertising (and those were the days when a million was a lot of money), and has beenvery successful for many years.


He is neither a piss head, nor a bully. His name will be in lights for a few years yet, whatever happens.


I think there is a bit of envy in the wind.

He's a self made man. I have no envy whatsoever for the bloke. Good on him. His is a great story.
 

Bluebags1908

Juniors
Messages
1,258
The Knights don't seem too committed to the Central Coast - they dumped their Central Coast Centurians team in the NSW Cup this year for a return to the Newcastle Knights.

The Bears are the only ones to show genuine interest in the area.

As for Singleton. no doubt he is a successful self-made buisinessman - can't really bag him for that, but in Rugby League terms he is a total myth. He has been the kiss of death on every club he has had to deal with (Newtown, Magpies, Bears). No great loss.

And if he was really "walking away from Rugby League" then I hope he gives us the 2GB radio rights and hands it over to several stations that would actually do a very decent job with saturation non-exclusive coverage.
 
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carlosthedwarf

First Grade
Messages
8,189
Newcastle CC Knights would do it mate. As a non-Novocastrian Knights supporter Id be all for it

However, I doubt our fellow Hunter based supporters would be so accepting.

I would be incredibly cautious of diluting the Knights brand in any way, it's one of those things you just don't mess with.
 

Stinkler

Juniors
Messages
1,417
Some of you guys make me laugh.

"There's an awesome stadium, so an NRL team should play there!!!"

Yep. Cool story bro!
 

roughyedspud

Coach
Messages
12,181
The Knights don't seem too committed to the Central Coast - they dumped their Central Coast Centurians team in the NSW Cup this year for a return to the Newcastle Knights.


i was gonna say....if central coast are serious about RL....why don't they start in the NSWcup as a stand alone team?
 

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